Glyndebourne’s short story ‘Carmen’ is inspired by Iranian women

Carmen is opera par excellence – and yet it’s not really about the main character. The main protagonist is Don José, who, in Prosper Mérimée’s original short story, is based on a thug awaiting execution for the murder of a gypsy. The author questioned him and found out that he had killed before. But, giving the story a romantic twist, Mérimée transforms him into Don José, a military corporal who finds himself perplexed and ultimately smitten by the fiery gypsy Carmen. This is the story that Georges Bizet transformed into perhaps the most beloved opera of all.

Don José no longer wishes to return home to marry the young local girl Michaëla, who comes to pick him up to give him a letter from her mother. He saw freedom in Carmen and lacked the imagination to create an independent life for himself, free from his mother. He is now torn by his duty to the army and by guilt towards his mother, an invisible figure (who, in the recent Covent Garden production, wanders in and out of the stage).

Unable to escape the trap in which he found himself, José joins the band of gypsy smugglers around Carmen, then loses her to the seductive bullfighter Escamillo. Completely disconcerted, he gets lost and kills Carmen outside the bullring where the bullfighter is winning his bullfight. Despite the knife fight with Escamillo, Carmen’s murder is committed by brute force – a visceral moment.

This new production by American Repertory Theater director Diane Paulus represents her Glyndebourne debut. Apparently Carmen was the first opera her parents took her to see when she was a child, and she became fascinated by it. For her, it’s as much about women’s empowerment as it is about the downfall of a man, and when she started working there, she was “struck by the phenomenal uprising of women in Iran… taking off their hijabs and taking to the streets. She hopes that “when the curtain falls, we are not lulled by a lyrical romance of a death, but…in (Carmen’s) death we feel its life force.”

Does Paulus succeed? Mostly yes, but some aspects are a bit exaggerated. The jackets are thrown to the ground in fits of anger, but after the incident where Don José allows Carmen to escape – a clever move on his part – there is a sudden outbreak of violence. The soldiers guarding the cigarette factory, where women can only go out into an area enclosed on all sides up to the top, inflict a brutal attack on him, as if he had suddenly become an enemy in one of the conflicts current global events. military conflicts. No operatic romance here, but how come a bunch of low-level guards feel entitled to beat up an NCO under such questionable circumstances?

Good settings: I liked the modern lighting of Lillas Pastia’s club in Act II, although the sunset lighting in Act III followed the topography of a mountainous landscape quite strangely. Otherwise, Malcolm Rippeth’s lighting was excellent and the bodybuilding appearance of the toreador Escamillo, strongly sung by Russian bass-baritone Dmitry Cheblykov, took us away from the specific location of Spain.

Ukrainian tenor Dmytro Popov made a fine Don José, even if he somewhat lacks the anguish that leads him to kill Rihab Chaieb’s assertive and strongly sung Carmen. The fine singing of Russian soprano Sofia Fomina in the role of Michaëla and Dingle Yandell in the role of Lieutenant Zuniga was superb. Musically, it was a performance of high energy under the direction of music director Robin Ticciati, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra providing excellent precision and starting with a quick and delightful tempo to set the mood.

A message from TheArticle

We’re the only publication committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, which is needed more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing throughout these difficult economic times. So please donate.